Scientists find new solar systems with planets the same size as ours using Nasa telescope

Scientists find new solar systems with planets the same size as ours using Nasa telescope

Two new solar systems, filled with their own worlds, have been found relatively close to our own.
One of them is just 160 light years from Earth and includes three
planets that are remarkably similar in size to our own. One of the three
is exactly the same size as our own world, and the others are only ever
so slightly bigger.

Otherwise, the planets are probably inhospitable: they are
very close to their star and therefore very warm. But as yet another
discovery of rocket planets that seem to show they are common throughout
the universe, they are another sign that it could be more hospitable
than we'd thought.

The other system has two much larger planets. Those worlds – which
like the first system, orbit a red dwarf – are known as super Earths.
Red dwarfs are old and relatively small, and the two stars are much
less hot than our Sun. But the newly discovered worlds are much closer,
meaning that the temperature is probably too hot for life.
The five planets were found by the K2 mission of Nasa's Kepler
satellite. That looks for the brief dips of light that happen when a
planet passes in front of its star, and allows scientists to use the
details of those dips to work out what they might be like.

Scientists now hope to use further observations – from the new James
Webb Space Telescope – to understand more about the planets'
atmospheres. They can also use other telescopes to work out more of the
physical properties of the worlds.

Astronomers have added 219 candidates to the growing list of planets
beyond our solar system, 10 of which may be about the same size and
temperature as Earth, boosting their chances of hosting life.
Scientists found the candidates in a final batch of Nasa’s Kepler Space Telescope observations of 200,000 sample stars in the constellation Cygnus.

They include 10 newly discovered rocky worlds that are the right
distance from their parent stars for water, if it exists there, to pool
on the surface. Scientists believe liquid water is a key ingredient for
life.
“An important question for us is, ‘Are we alone?’” Kepler program
scientist Mario Perez said in a conference call with reporters. “Maybe
Kepler today is telling us indirectly ... that we are not alone.”
Nasa
launched the Kepler telescope in 2009 to learn if Earth-like planets
are common or rare. With the final analysis of Kepler data in hand,
scientists said they will now work on answering that question, a key
step in assessing the chance that life exists beyond Earth.
During a four-year mission Kepler found 2,335 confirmed planets and
another 1,699 candidates, bringing its tally to 4,034. That number
includes about 50 worlds that may be about the same size and temperature
as Earth.
Including other telescope surveys, scientists have confirmed the existence of nearly 3,500 planets beyond the solar system.

Kepler’s data also provided a new way to assess whether a planet has
a solid surface, like Earth, or is made mostly of gas, like Neptune.
The distinction will help scientists home in on potential Earth-like
planets and better the odds for finding life.
The Kepler team found that planets which are about 1.75 times the
size of Earth and smaller tend to be rocky, while those two to 3.5 times
the size of Earth become gas-shrouded worlds like Neptune.
“It’s like finding what we thought was a single species of animal is
really two different things,” said Benjamin Fulton, a graduate student
in astronomy who analysed the Kepler data.
So far, these planets, which scientists refer to as “super-Earths”
and “mini-Neptunes”, have not been found in Earth’s solar system, though
scientists are on the hunt for a potential ninth planet far beyond
Pluto.
“It is interesting that we don’t have what appears to be the most common type of planet in the galaxy,” Fulton said.